{"id":{"repo_id":"queens","oai_identifier":"oai:queensu.scholaris.ca:1974/28878"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/queens/oai:queensu.scholaris.ca:1974/28878","repository":{"repo_id":"queens","name":"Queens University","base_url":"https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"BLACKNESS AND BRITISH ‘FAIR PLAY’: BURGEONING BLACK SOCIAL ACTIVISM IN ONTARIO AND ITS GRASSROOTS RESPONSES TO THE CANADIAN COLOUR LINE, 1919-1939","abstract":"“Blackness and British ‘Fair Play’: Burgeoning Black Social Activism in Ontario and its Grassroots Responses to the Canadian Colour Line, 1919-1939” centres community-building as an effective method to reject the notion of Blackness as racial alterity and second-class citizenship in Canada. This project highlights the understudied and informal everyday acts of resistance that Black Canadian women crafted to fight anti-Black racism during the interwar period. After identifying how white Canadians expressed the colour line during the 1920s and 1930s, I consider how Black people pragmatically responded in Ontario. In this study, I argue that Black women worked as community leaders to engender a shared intra-racial collective among Black Canadians of varying backgrounds. Their dynamic leadership changed over time, developing through church fundraising social activities, starting church youth clubs, to launching much-needed leisure, recreation, and learning activities premised on a Black international scope and a Pan-Africanist ideology. A close examination of oral history interviews, church records, activist organization records, and newspapers offers a thoughtful consideration of historical contingencies. These factors informed the everyday, local ways that Black people in Ontario challenged their racialized alterity and ostracization in Canadian society.","abstract_html":"“Blackness and British ‘Fair Play’: Burgeoning Black Social Activism in Ontario and its Grassroots Responses to the Canadian Colour Line, 1919-1939” centres community-building as an effective method to reject the notion of Blackness as racial alterity and second-class citizenship in Canada. This project highlights the understudied and informal everyday acts of resistance that Black Canadian women crafted to fight anti-Black racism during the interwar period. After identifying how white Canadians expressed the colour line during the 1920s and 1930s, I consider how Black people pragmatically responded in Ontario. In this study, I argue that Black women worked as community leaders to engender a shared intra-racial collective among Black Canadians of varying backgrounds. Their dynamic leadership changed over time, developing through church fundraising social activities, starting church youth clubs, to launching much-needed leisure, recreation, and learning activities premised on a Black international scope and a Pan-Africanist ideology. A close examination of oral history interviews, church records, activist organization records, and newspapers offers a thoughtful consideration of historical contingencies. These factors informed the everyday, local ways that Black people in Ontario challenged their racialized alterity and ostracization in Canadian society.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Shaw, Melissa"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"History","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Errington, E.J."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-27T20:35:27Z","subjects":["Black Canadians","Ontario","social activism","Black women","interwar period","anti-Black racism"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1974/28878","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["History"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.supervisor","label":"Supervisor","values":["Errington, E.J."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Shaw, Melissa"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2021-05-27T19:29:16Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2021-05-27T19:29:16Z"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Black Canadians","Ontario","social activism","Black women","interwar period","anti-Black racism"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1974/28878"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["“Blackness and British ‘Fair Play’: Burgeoning Black Social Activism in Ontario and its Grassroots Responses to the Canadian Colour Line, 1919-1939” centres community-building as an effective method to reject the notion of Blackness as racial alterity and second-class citizenship in Canada. This project highlights the understudied and informal everyday acts of resistance that Black Canadian women crafted to fight anti-Black racism during the interwar period. After identifying how white Canadians expressed the colour line during the 1920s and 1930s, I consider how Black people pragmatically responded in Ontario. In this study, I argue that Black women worked as community leaders to engender a shared intra-racial collective among Black Canadians of varying backgrounds. Their dynamic leadership changed over time, developing through church fundraising social activities, starting church youth clubs, to launching much-needed leisure, recreation, and learning activities premised on a Black international scope and a Pan-Africanist ideology. A close examination of oral history interviews, church records, activist organization records, and newspapers offers a thoughtful consideration of historical contingencies. These factors informed the everyday, local ways that Black people in Ontario challenged their racialized alterity and ostracization in Canadian society."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["PhD"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["BLACKNESS AND BRITISH ‘FAIR PLAY’: BURGEONING BLACK SOCIAL ACTIVISM IN ONTARIO AND ITS GRASSROOTS RESPONSES TO THE CANADIAN COLOUR LINE, 1919-1939"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.department":["History"],"dc:contributor.supervisor":["Errington, E.J."],"dc:creator":["Shaw, Melissa"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2021-05-27T19:29:16Z"],"dc:date.available":["2021-05-27T19:29:16Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["“Blackness and British ‘Fair Play’: Burgeoning Black Social Activism in Ontario and its Grassroots Responses to the Canadian Colour Line, 1919-1939” centres community-building as an effective method to reject the notion of Blackness as racial alterity and second-class citizenship in Canada. This project highlights the understudied and informal everyday acts of resistance that Black Canadian women crafted to fight anti-Black racism during the interwar period. After identifying how white Canadians expressed the colour line during the 1920s and 1930s, I consider how Black people pragmatically responded in Ontario. In this study, I argue that Black women worked as community leaders to engender a shared intra-racial collective among Black Canadians of varying backgrounds. Their dynamic leadership changed over time, developing through church fundraising social activities, starting church youth clubs, to launching much-needed leisure, recreation, and learning activities premised on a Black international scope and a Pan-Africanist ideology. A close examination of oral history interviews, church records, activist organization records, and newspapers offers a thoughtful consideration of historical contingencies. These factors informed the everyday, local ways that Black people in Ontario challenged their racialized alterity and ostracization in Canadian society."],"dc:description.degree":["PhD"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/1974/28878"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:subject":["Black Canadians","Ontario","social activism","Black women","interwar period","anti-Black racism"],"dc:title":["BLACKNESS AND BRITISH ‘FAIR PLAY’: BURGEONING BLACK SOCIAL ACTIVISM IN ONTARIO AND ITS GRASSROOTS RESPONSES TO THE CANADIAN COLOUR LINE, 1919-1939"],"dc:type":["thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T20:35:27Z"}